


Hold Me Down

by CaffeinatedWriter



Series: Descendants AU [2]
Category: Bully (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Disney's Descendants, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Established Relationship, Jealousy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 07:44:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10917408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaffeinatedWriter/pseuds/CaffeinatedWriter
Summary: Pete is not like his parents, but he’s just as selfish.





	Hold Me Down

His heart hammers against his chest in time with the bass vibrating along the tile of the ballroom and up his spine, not sure which one is more unbearable. Both are invasive, insistent inside of him, and he feels cracked open.

Exposed.  

He tries to ignore how perfectly the melancholy beat matches up to the darkness swirling in the pit of his stomach. It’s unbecoming to be so obvious – his friends and family and life experience in general has taught him that much – and of all the ways he could be weak, this is the worst.

If looks could kill, though he hates to be cliche in the wake of what is already a nightmare of melodramatic proportions, Pete would have more than earned his place on the island he’d reluctantly called his home. Home being an objective word, of course.

The effort he makes to harden his face feels useless in its fragility, threatening to crumble against his will.

“Pete?” Jimmy says, sounding light years away even though Pete knows he couldn’t have left his spot at Pete’s side. “What’s the matter?”

The older boy is alternating his attention between Pete and where Gary is dancing with the princess. Or at least, Pete assumes so because he refuses to tear his eyes away from the spectacle the thief is making with the girl.

Once, when they were much younger and Pete’s heart was far more thawed than it is these days, Gary confided to him in a moment of weakness that drawing attention bred attachment. He swore with all the knowledge of a child who didn’t quite know his way around his own self yet that a proper thief could charm treasures off a person without people talking the next morning.

Pete doesn’t know how much of that was Gary’s mother talking, it had seemed impossible to tell where Gary’s mother’s insecurities ended and Gary began back then, but it had felt like the most precious of secrets at the time. An insight to how the older boy worked, and everyone on the island knew insight on a person was the first step in not getting played by ‘friends’ who would just as soon plunge a dirty, blunt knife in your back.

Spectacles were for lovers, Pete had surmised, and lovers just didn’t exist on the island.

They’re not on the island anymore.

“Pete, it’s really nothing,” Zoe adds, but she knows better – was raised in the same hell with the same angry boy spilling secrets from bloody lips – and it shows in the way she glances at the dancing couple.

He’s not sure if he despises the worry or the pity more.

Jimmy looks between them, confused because as unclean as he is compared to the rest of them, he’s not the same filth they are. Right in this moment, he feels all of the bad person he continues to assure the future king he is.

“I don’t understand,” Jimmy mumbles as the song comes to an end and all the couples bow to one another. Pete can see Gary’s grin in the glint of the lights bouncing off the floor, releasing his partner without so much as one of her rings tangled in his fingers.

Pete’d always loved those fingers.

“I sold my soul to the devil,” he says, arms tangled in each other. He grasps at the flesh above his elbow, bruising to ground himself.

“He was dancing? We’re at a dance-” Jimmy tries to reason, silenced by Zoe’s gentle hand on his arm.

Zoe is not gentle, or kind, or tactful. Time away from the island, away from her mother, and the prince have smoothed out her rough edges to something friendly. Did he not appreciate it in this moment, it would be more distasteful.

They’re changing, for the better by the standards of their new home, but Pete was never bad in the way they were in the first place, and he doesn’t know what to do with change from people who had only ever liked him and each other.

He doesn’t know how to be better than he is, too self-centered for good and too spineless for bad.

Gary approaches, grin still blinding and Pete grits his teeth.

“Well that was fun,” the thief says, knocking shoulders with Pete a bit too hard and sending him stumbling. He gathers himself, unsure whether his pride or his shoulder hurts more.

“Lying usually is,” he mumbles bitterly, shifting when Gary’s focus shifts to him. It never was easy to have all of Gary’s attention, good or bad, but he’s never not wanted it before.

The thief cocks an eyebrow, crossing his arms. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asks, challenging. And well, he could shut up right now, but he’s never been one to back down when Gary’s the one pushing.

“You’re a fake,” Pete hisses, forcing himself to make eye contact.

“I’m honest in my intentions,” Gary argues, eyes sharp as if daring Pete to find the lie. “With you, I’m always honest.”

“Honesty can be a form of manipulation,” Pete counters. Gary’s mother is a perfect example of that, never having spoken a lie in regards to her feelings and still cutting deep where it mattered. The older boy is a litany of invisible scars that fucked him up more than the visible ones ever did.

“So I’m manipulative and you’re selfish,” Gary says, shrugging though he keeps his eyes firmly locked on Pete’s. “I like you selfish; I thought you liked me manipulative.”

“Not me!” Pete spits, throwing out an arm sharply, frustration bubbling into the hurt he’s trying to keep submerged. If he cries, even he won’t find himself worthy of the thief’s affections.

Pete has worked so hard to be someone worth keeping around – even by villain standards, Gary is unreceptive to bullshit – and every moment of it had been worth it for every second Gary had allowed himself to be owned. The older boy is just as much at fault for the blackening of his heart as the island itself, softening only in secret moments offered like a gift.

“Not you,” Gary repeats, annoyance buzzing off each word.

“Not when I’m the one being manipulated,” he corrects, feeling the beginning of tears form. From frustration, he tells himself an internal, repetitive chant.

Gary scoffs, waving a dismissive hand. “Sorry to let you down, Princess, but that’s how we work. You’re gonna cry about it? Gotten soft or is the Bullworth sun just exposing some pre-existing soft spots?” he taunts.

Pete feels like he’s going to break.

“That is not how we work!” he screams, feeling the eyes of the attention they’ve drawn. He doesn’t care. His insides burn from everything he hasn’t said since they got here. “I’ve done everything I had to, so much terrible shit, and all you had to do was stay mine! You like me selfish? I’m being selfish; I’m so fucking selfish, Gary. How **dare** you manipulate me!”

It’s an explosion; he can practically feel the negative energy leaving his body with the words. A cleansing sort of anger he’s never known, but it feels so good.

Gary looks lost for once in his entire life, a weakness that Pete feels a sick thrill at bringing out. He refuses to be the only one who’s forced to bare their bruised soul.

“I-” the older boy stutters, eyes flickering to the students mumbling behind their hands while they watch from a safe distance. The children from The Isle of the Lost, always the tragic entertainment for the privileged. Or maybe that’s just him, he who hasn’t forged his own connection of the island like his friends.

Pete does not want to change, and he does not want to be left behind.

“When did you start liking the means of stealing more the ends?” Pete demands. “I’m lucky if you come back with so much as a stolen pencil now, but I’m assaulted with the smell of pompous royalty without fail.”

Gary rolls his eyes, so dismissive. It fills the empty spaces vacated by his outburst.

“This is about stuff-”

“It’s not about stuff!” Pete cries. “I don’t…I don’t care about stuff. I am not my parents, and I will not rot alone with my possessions. I take responsibilities for my actions and prioritize my relationships. It’s not about stuff! I just don’t want to lose…”

“Lose what?” Pete stays silent, eyes trained on the ground. He’s stupid, so dumb. They don’t talk about it because if they do, it goes away, and he’s never wanted to lose what they have. “Lose what, Pete?” Gary demands, grabbing the smaller boy’s arm. “What’s so important that you’d make an idiot of yourself, look like a weak little bitch for in front of all these people?”

He sounds scared, but that’s ridiculous because Gary is much stronger than the rest of them. Has kept his heart locked up tight from day one, so Pete can’t bare to think him scared in this kind of situation.

Clenching his jaw, he composes himself.

“I love you,” he says, wrapping fingers gently around a wrist to pull Gary’s hand off his arm. “And I am going to be so selfish, Gary, because if anyone takes you away, I will decimate every kingdom I can get my hands on until they lock me back down on that island so tightly, the only trace anyone will see of me for the rest of my life is the aftermath.”

The silence that follows is so tense. He can feel the room simultaneously hold their breath. It’s a dangerous statement, especially when their standing in this kingdom is so fragile. Especially when Gary and Zoe are both the result of broken hearts turned untouchable. But it’s honest, and it’s how he feels.

“Okay,” Gary breathes, starstruck.

He did that. He made Gary Smith speechless And he made his eyes soften, a glimpse of what they might have been all along in a different story. He makes Gary honest when they were taught nothing but lies.

That’s Pete’s alone, and that means more than any trinket or dance.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, you can find me [here](http://beathimbacktotheghetto.tumblr.com).


End file.
